Fourth Days
Elaine Snodgrass
Great Smoky Mountain Emmaus Walk #57
Table of Naomi
O.K., I admit…I’m cheating a little bit. My
“walk” was not Grace Emmaus Walk #5; but…it was the first walk that I was
involved with this community, so I suppose that can count! I have fallen in
love with this community and have decided to make it my own. But, since I do
have the power (of the website anyhow,) I wanted to share my Fourth Day story.
It’s one of those “God” things.
While I was working at the
University of Tennessee, the fall of 2002, we had a big Thanksgiving dinner and
invited all of the folks that had worked with our group in the past. It was
really nice. Elithe Carnes (who ended up being my sponsor) came that day. I
saw her talking with others and noticed that she looked like she had a secret.
What was up with that? I got over to talk to her and, yep,up close…she was
glowing!
We started talking and then
the conversation turned to spiritual matters. If it was possible, she lit up
even more than she already was! She says, “Elaine, I have to tell you about
this experience I just had!” She proceeded to tell me about her Emmaus Walk
(that she had just completed a few weeks before.) At that time, I had already
spent the entire year looking and searching and seeking for anything that would
bring me closer to God, so I told her to sign me up! I attended the December
gathering there in Knoxville and, I admit, I thought it was strange. I was
puzzled, but still somewhat interested.
I must say that I did start
having some doubts because I couldn’t get an exact description of the weekend.
So I started thinking, “OK, maybe this is not something I need to do. I was
desperately trying to get closer to God at that time in my life. So I thought
maybe this was something satan was using to get me off track (yes, seriously!)
Our youth pastor’s wife was one of the persons’ information that I’d given
Elithe to “pray for me” <wink-wink> during the weekend! After
Elithe contacted her, she came up to me and hugged me and was so excited that I
was going on the walk. She said it would change my life. She still wouldn’t
give me any details! But, from that time on, I didn’t have any more doubts. I
was just waiting for my walking shoes!
Elithe and Rich took me to
dinner the Thursday night before my walk. They wanted to touch base and see if
I had any questions (Ha! none that they would answer anyhow!) or if I had any
thing that they could take care of for me while I was on the walk. We were
good. I was primed and ready and so excited! (Actually, the excited part was
not new. I’d spent the year being excited about God!) I could hardly wait
though. They told me to be on the lookout for extra spiritual warfare
throughout the next week, because satan does not want anyone, ANYONE, to attend
this Walk. So I promised them I would be on the lookout.
Let me preface this by
saying that I’d seen the Passion of the Christ movie just a few weeks before my
walk. (The Sunday before my walk just happened to be my 43rd
birthday!) I woke up that morning not feeling very well. I was sort of sick to
my stomach. I went on to church and taught my 5th & 6th
grader’s Sunday school class. Then I came home and crashed. By 12:00 or so I
was in so much pain in my abdominal area that I could not stand it. I couldn't
lay down, I couldn't sit up. Finally, about 1:00, my brother, Donald, took
me to the emergency room in Oak Ridge. We were there for about five hours or so
(I think.) They did all kinds of tests and said it was simply an intestinal
influenza. The doctor gave me something for nausea and told me to stick to
clear liquids for at least 48 hours, and then go easy.
Well, Sunday night was even
worse than Sunday afternoon. I fell out of bed (one of those high beds that
needs a step ladder to climb up!) while throwing up. That was very
interesting. It was a real struggle throughout the night. I was in so much
pain in my whole abdominal area. The whole time I was in pain that night I kept
thinking that Christ had suffered so much more, so very much more, than this for
me and He kept on going to the task He knew lay ahead of Him. I thanked my
precious Jesus so much for how He suffered for me and for my sin. I praised my
God for His awesome power and plan and how He loves me so. Praise God! I said
out loud that no matter if I was even hurting on Thursday that I was going on
the walk. Satan was NOT going to keep me away. I had no intention of missing
that blessing. I was going and that was that. It was a struggle throughout the
night. I’d almost be asleep and then I’d wake up sick and throw up, and then
praise God and tell Him that I was happy to be sick and suffer for Him. It was
the most unusual praise session I'd ever had with God. Well, I finally
fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning, I found that my sheet (the fitted
bottom sheet) on my bed was split down the center from the top to the bottom.
Wow! I would say that was a struggle! I was still sick on Monday and couldn’t
keep any pain or nausea medicine down. I started feeling a little better on
Monday evening though.
That Monday while I was in
bed watching TV, I heard this –word–
from God through a speaker I was listening to. It was John 16:33. ‘These
things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” It
just really spoke to me after the spiritual battle of the night before.
I called Elithe on Monday
and she got everyone praying. I was kind of puny throughout the first part of
the week, but I made it on Thursday evening. I was weak, but raring to get
started on my amazing walk! Of course, my family thought I was insane to
be attempting some sort of retreat (that they knew NOTHING about) after being so
sick that week. I'm sad to say that even though I came home walking on the
clouds, my family still doesn't get it. My brothers tease me about,
those meetins'....you know. I'm so glad I didn't let satan defeat
me and keep me from my walk.
This is what I wrote in my
journal the Wednesday night before my Emmaus Walk:
“Lord, my God, I come to
You tonight willingly and open to what You have for me during this walk. I love
You Lord, but I do realize that I don’t know how to love You more. Please help
me to be able to learn to love You more. You deserve ALL that I have to give.
I want to know how to serve You better and more. I don’t know where the next
three days will take me Lord. I can only pray that they bring me closer to
You!!”
There is nothing that I can
say about my walk that everyone else does not say after their walk! You know
what it’s like. It was wonderful, refreshing, enlightening, uplifting,
amazing! I came away with two main things from the walk: 1) Saturday afternoon
during quiet time, I was tucked away in the back of the sanctuary, writing in my
journal. As clearly as if I'd heard Him speak to me audibly, I heard, "How
real am I to you?" It really made me stop and think. I spout that I
love God and I want to serve God, but truly, in reality in my every day living
and breathing life, how real is Jesus to me? It really made me take stock
of myself; and 2) I don’t need to learn to love God more, I need to learn
to serve Him more (better). Yea, at closing I’m afraid I was one of those
people that took the microphone and hand cross and started walking to and fro
and talking with it! <grin> (You know…”Stick to the script.”) But there were
just things that I had to say!
Finally….I get to my fourth
days. My fourth days have been awesome. Through service in various positions
within the Emmaus community walks, I have learned so much about Christian
service and how God loves us and how cool it is to serve Him and love Him and
watch Him love others. Every time you participate, whether sendoff, serving
meals, cleaning bathrooms, preparing agape, praying within the prayer vigil (or
just coming to the walk to pray), coming to candlelight, participating on a
conference room team, kitchen team, dining room team, outside agape team, or
prayer team, or coming to closing, you feel God’s love and you see Christ’s
hands and feet in action. I believe the biggest blessing that I have had was
when I was the agape coordinator. I am not a very good at
delegating--apparently (sigh). I had to be on top of everything going on that
weekend. I just about wore myself to a fried, frazzle! I was so tired and worn
out, but sitting there during closing, hearing the ladies talk about their
experience, made it all worth it; and it made the blessing so much sweeter.
Satan doesn’t try much to get me before the walks any more. I am so determined
to be involved, it would take something pretty major to talk me out of
participating. I have noticed lately that my spiritual attacks come ‘after’ a
walk. The last two walks that I worked I was leveled with spiritual battles the
week after. The first time it happened I didn’t see it coming and was just
flattened. The next time, I figured out what was going on at the start. It was
still a battle, but I knew to get on my knees.
I’m so excited about
serving God. I try so hard to get others excited also. It just amazes me how
difficult it is to convince someone to come on the Emmaus Walk. What is up with
that? I PROMISE you people, it's not a cult! <grin>
How did I come to the Grace
Emmaus of Kentucky Community? I thought I was the only person in Jacksboro/LaFollette
that had experienced the Walk to Emmaus. I was so far away from everyone in
Knoxville that I did not have a regular reunion group. I was doing an email
reunion group, but it’s just not the same. Then my mother told me that Shirley
(Spangler) told her that she’d been on the Emmaus Walk and some of the ladies
from their church had been. Oh my goodness! It was on. I was so excited to
find kindred spirits (close to home)! Then when Shirley called and told me that
Connie (Rice) was the lay director for the fall walk (2006) and she wanted to
know if I would be on her team…..what else could I say? Yes!! Of course YES!
Shirley and Connie and I go WAAAYYYY back. I’ve already told my age….I won’t
tell Connie’s!
It was such a great
experience. In all of the walks that I have worked previously, I had never
experienced a walk that was so Spirit filled as Grace Emmaus Walk #5. I was in
awe. It was almost like going on my walk all over again. I have fallen in love
with the community, with the people, with the love that flows. I had to make a
decision on which community I was going to devote myself to full time. With the
work that goes into serving, it is just too time-consuming to try to work two
communities full time. It was a hard decision. I love the folks in Knoxville
too! But after talking to God about it and looking at how things are, I have
decided that I just love the Corbin community too much to give it up. I’ll
still support Knoxville with prayer and agape and candlelight, but my main desire is to
work with and help grow the Grace Emmaus of Kentucky Community so we can get the
whole Eastern Kentucky/Eastern Tennessee area on fire for God.
I hope to meet each and
everyone that has been on a Grace Emmaus Walk. Let’s all strive to make it to
the monthly gatherings and to participate in all of the Emmaus activities that
we can. Let’s support this community and show others the love that was shown to
us on our walk.
DeColores!!! |
